The proliferation of missiles, especially anti tank guided missiles (ATGM), and their availability to terrorists present a real threat to military vehicles and posts, and to civil objects such as cars, buses, buildings, bridges, airports, seaports, power stations, passenger ships, tankers, aircraft and fuel reservoirs. In addition, ATGM can be used against troops and platoons in urban conflicts. More than half a million guided missiles have been distributed worldwide, and many of these are still operational. A majority of these missiles currently use infrared (IR) sensors to guide them to the target. Typical missiles have ranges of 5-8 km. Known countermeasures range from active IR jamming to flares, smog grenades and chaff.
A variety of countermeasure systems is known, for example, those disclosed in:                U.S. Pat. No. 7,378,626 which discloses a directed infrared countermeasures (DIRCM) system and method;        U.S. Pat. No. 7,478,578 which discloses commercial airliner missile protection using formation drone aircraft;        U.S. Pat. No. 6,977,598 which discloses an aircraft protection system and method;        U.S. Pat. No. 6,359,710 which discloses an IR radiation-seeker missile jammer;        U.S. Pat. No. 6,352,031 which discloses a radiative countermeasures method for protecting an aircraft and other vehicles from infrared “heat seeking” hostile missiles;        U.S. Pat. No. 5,742,384 which discloses a compact scanning infrared countermeasure emitter;        U.S. Pat. No. 5,662,291 which discloses a device for self-defense of aircraft against missiles;        U.S. Pat. No. 7,569,824 which discloses a laser beam steering system and method for use in a directional infrared countermeasures system;        U.S. Pat. No. 7,523,692 which discloses an aircraft defense system against manpads with IR/UV seekers;        U.S. Pat. No. 6,587,486 which discloses a laser beam source for a directional infrared countermeasures (DIRCM) weapon system; and        U.S. Pat. No. 6,707,052 which discloses an infrared deception countermeasure system.        